Faculty News

for April, 2011

Professor Dale Carpenter published an op-ed entitled "How the Law Accepted Gays" in the New York Times. In the article, Carpenter places in historical context the recent decision of a prominent national law firm to withdraw as counsel to the House of Representatives in litigation over the Defense of Marriage Act. In a half-century struggle, he writes, "Gay-rights supporters have transformed the law and the legal profession, opening the doors of law firms, law schools and courts to people who were once casually and cruelly shut out because of their sexual orientation."

Professor Jane Kirtley was quoted in a Washington Post article about a defamation lawsuit filed by Daniel Snyder, owner of the Washington Redskins, against City Paper, an alternative weekly in Washington, D.C. Snyder had originally filed his suit in New York, claiming that the newspaper insulted him. Snyder refiled the suit in Washington, and he now argues that the story portrayed him as a dishonest businessman. Citing Supreme Court precedent, Kirtley said, "Someone must have told [Snyder], 'You're never going to win by arguing that you were insulted, so let's re-purpose the case.'"

The University of Minnesota Office of the Vice President for Research has awarded Professor Kristin Hickman a Grant-in-Aid of Research, Artistry, and Scholarship. The grant will fund an extended empirical study of Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service regulation practices. The title of the project Hickman will be working on is "Treasury and the IRS Rulemaking Practices: A Comprehensive Empirical Evaluation." The amount awarded is $14,500.

Professor Daniel Schwarcz's article, "Reevaluating Standardized Insurance Policies" (forthcoming in the University of Chicago Law Review), was featured in The New York Times. Schwarcz's article demonstrates that the conventional wisdom that insurance policies in property casualty markets are homogeneous commodities is wrong and that, actually, different carriers' policies differ dramatically in terms of the scope of coverage they provide. Despite this, it is impossible for even vigilant and informed consumers to discern these differences, as both regulators and markets have failed to promote transparency because of their outdated assumption that insurance policies are homogeneous.

Professor William McGeveran contributed two recent articles to Capital New York. One essay considers a trademark dispute between Christian Louboutin and Yves St. Laurent concerning red soles on luxury women's shoes. The other is an interview with New York Law School Professor James Grimmelmann about the rejection of a proposed settlement of the Google Books copyright case.

New York Times op-ed columnist Joe Nocera quoted Professor Prentiss Cox in his piece, "Letting the Banks Off the Hook," on the recent settlement by the Office of Comptroller of the Currency with banks engaged in mortgage servicing.

Professor Prentiss Cox appeared in a Bloomberg News story discussing the settlement between mortgage service companies and federal banking regulators. Cox noted that the Office of Comptroller of the Currency has been captive to the interests of the banks it supervises. He also stated that a separate set of negotiations between state attorneys general and the mortgage servicers could succeed even if all states did not participate in the settlement.

Professor Richard Painter was quoted by Reuters in a story about an important insider trading case in which U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff expressed concern about new powers vested in the SEC under the Dodd-Frank Act of 2010. The case was brought against Rajat Gupta, a former worldwide director of McKinsey & Co, accused of passing tips to Galleon Group founder Raj Rajaratnam. Painter pointed out that the Judge's comments about Dodd-Frank were not improper unless they demonstrated prejudice against the SEC as a party to the case.

Professor John Matheson gave a presentation on the Dodd-Frank Proxy Access Rules at the Directors Roundtable on Dodd-Frank Act program. Matheson also moderated a panel discussion on the Dodd-Frank Act, which included Joan McKown, Partner at Jones Day and former SEC Chief Counsel of the Division of Enforcement (1993-2010); Trevor Gunderson, Vice President, Associate General Counsel and Assistant Corporate Secretary, General Mills; Peter Keller, Partner at Baker Tilly Virchow Krause, LLP; and Philip T. Colton, Shareholder at Winthrop & Weinstine.

Professor Ralph Hall will testify before the United States Senate Special Committee on Aging on April 13, 2011. The hearing entitled, "A Delicate Balance: FDA and the Reform of the Medical Device Approval Process," has been called to examine medical device recalls and product safety. Hall will discuss medical device safety, product recalls and post market surveillance.

Professor Prentiss Cox has been elected to the Board of Directors of The State Center, a national organization that provides grants to state attorneys general for vigorous enforcement of antitrust and consumer protection laws. The State Center is independent and bipartisan.

Professor Susan M. Wolf has been invited to deliver a plenary presentation as well as a workshop presentation at the upcoming 2011 ELSI Congress on April 12-14 at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. This meeting, sponsored by the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), is the major national meeting to address the Ethical, Legal, and Social Implications (ELSI) Research Program sponsored by NHGRI, which has funded a number of grants on which Wolf is Principal Investigator. Wolf's presentations will focus on work emanating from her current grant project on "Managing Incidental Findings and Research Results in Genomic Research Involving Biobanks & Archives."